Was John Button right

[mik]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

Heres another angle, how many more people are employed by companies importing vehicles into Australia through their dealer networks.

Would it not be fair to say that lowering tariffs has enabled a greater spread of brands and dealerships and therefore more employment in the motor industry.

I remember a time when the main roads had Ford, Holden, Chrysler, Mazda and Datsun.
Today its Ford, Holden, Mitsubishi, Chrysler, Nissan, Kia, Hyundai, Mazda, Great wall, Cherry, Suzuki, VW, Skoda, Fiat...etc. etc.

That is one angle, the way i see it you have to ask yourself are you happy with all the decades of Australians building up industry and infrastructure and technology being closed down/thrown away and OZ being basically a service country? are you happy with working with minimum job security? are you happy to lose Australia's ability to be fairly independent without having to rely on other countries for goods? these are things that our home grown industry did provide for us for decades, and it is diminishing , once upon a time a low skilled person could leave school and get a job in the labor industry somewhere , be it in textiles(industry kaput), or the motor industry(nearly kaput), or a supplier, or the steel industry ........get some on the job training and happily work there possibly for decades, but these jobs are disappearing .
Even to be a lowly council worker these days(no disrespect intended) , you get asked "how many tickets you got mate", good luck getting a job without having friends or being very lucky if you are low skilled.
There will always be a need for labour type industries , a percentage of the populace are not suited to being rocket scientist or mathematicians or salesman, if you take away the majority of the local industry you are going to have a a lot of idle hands and dole cheques to pay out, and a lot more crime, not to mention losing a lot of skills.

[BENT_8]

Originally Posted by mik

That is one angle, the way i see it you have to ask yourself are you happy with all the decades of Australians building up industry and infrastructure and technology being closed down/thrown away and OZ being basically a service country? are you happy with working with minimum job security? are you happy to lose Australia's ability to be fairly independent without having to rely on other countries for goods? these are things that our home grown industry did provide for us for decades, and it is diminishing , once upon a time a low skilled person could leave school and get a job in the labor industry somewhere , be it in textiles(industry kaput), or the motor industry(nearly kaput), or a supplier, or the steel industry ........get some on the job training and happily work there possibly for decades, but these jobs are disappearing .
Even to be a lowly council worker these days(no disrespect intended) , you get asked "how many tickets you got mate", good luck getting a job without having friends or being very lucky if you are low skilled.
There will always be a need for labour type industries , a percentage of the populace are not suited to being rocket scientist or mathematicians or salesman, if you take away the majority of the local industry you are going to have a a lot of idle hands and dole cheques to pay out, and a lot more crime, not to mention losing a lot of skills.

Hey, totally agreed, which is why I was so vocal with anti Ford sentiment after the announcement, it is the workers I fear for.
Many of them know nothing else but manufacturing, how will these people be received in an employment market which prefers certificates of paper over hands on experiences.

I was simply pointing out that for all the negatives of the Button plan, there are many people who work for successful import brand networks who will disagree, my brother being one of them.

[twr7cx]

The concept of limiting models available to our market due to our very small consumer base (in comparison with somewhere like the USA) is a valid concept. The method used may not have been the correct approach.
Australia has a ridiculously large range of choice of vehicles at present. There are a huge amount f manufacturers offering their products and each has a large range. This is all despite the fact that it's a rather small consumer group.

[wrongwaynorris]

" top post Wrongway ............. run for PM mate , you got my vote!!!
To add to that anyone that thinks the de industrialization of Australia(also by stealth) is by accident , do some research on the the Lima declaration, or check it out on the tube , the only conclusion anybody could come to is it is by design "

Thanks M8

[I6DOHC]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

It used to be a well known joke in the late seventies and into the eighties (and even into the nineties) that "Here we are in Australia where we bake in the sun most of the year, but drive cars where heaters are standard and air conditioning is an option..."

And now the joke has been had on us...because all of the countries around the world just laugh as successive Aussie Governments have dropped all our barriers to trade while still accepting theirs.

Funny stuff.

There needs to be balance in the plan. Some parts worked but it clearly failed over the longer term, because what's the point of the 'Button Plan' when there is no longer a car industry.

The main thing though, we as consumers are the winners....aren't we. Just a pity there will be no industries to work for in the future to buy those great and high quality imported goods and food. We'll all be able to sit back and rejoice that they are better than we could build/grow ourselves here in Australia.

I wonder if we'll start importing water next. Perhaps they make better water over there?